


Mutate

by MKwitch



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:23:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22870192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MKwitch/pseuds/MKwitch
Summary: Alt-powers AU.Taylor triggers in the locker with a rather transformative power. With the Wards on her side, how will she fare against the challenges the world will bring her?
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	1. Prologue: Aegis

The school was way past closing time, and Winslow was eerie at night. Even more eerie, thought Aegis, than Arcadia at night. 

It was becoming quite clear to the Ward that Winslow was a very poorly maintained school. Graffiti, gang signs, and trash littered the lockers and hallways. If there was a janitor for the school, he obviously didn’t give a single shit about his job. 

Armsmaster’s voice crackled through the comm in Aegis’s helmet. “I think I found the location of the ‘prank’ the informant told us about.” 

Aegis was curious. He had never heard about a school prank causing someone to trigger. Sure, Glory Girl had triggered at a basketball game, but that had been traumatic for her for other reasons. 

“Where is it?” Aegis replied. 

“Locker one-three-six.” The older parahuman responded. 

Aegis looked at the lockers nearest to him. One-oh-seven. 

As the Ward made his way to the locker in question, he noticed a horrendous smell in the air. It got strong the nearer he got to his destination. It wasn’t the normal smell of a stink-bomb at all. This scent was significantly more organic. And metallic. Aegis really hoped that nobody had been “Carrie’d”. 

Just as Aegis found the locker in question, as well as Armsmaster, there was a loud, echoey thump coming from the locker. 

Muffled shuffling sounds could be heard from the locker as well. Armsmaster gestured to Aegis, indicating that they should work together to remove the door from its hinges. 

Aegis took up position, and together, they ripped the locker door open. 

Inside was a horror. 

Rotting pads and tampons, composting food, and animal shit had been poured together and left to rot in the locker for what seemed like weeks. But the biggest surprise was the human-sized cocoon half-immersed in the biological hazard. 

As Aegis watched in dawning terror as the cocoon shifted, and small muffled noises came from inside it. 

There was a _person_ inside there! 

Armsmaster also seemed to be frozen in shock for a moment. Then the man came out of his stupor and set to work digging out the cocoon. 

The chrysalis was humongous, and a sickly green colour. It was also really, really gross-looking, Aegis decided. Less so than the concoction inside the locker, but still kind of nasty. 

Aegis decided to do the job he had been assigned, and calm down the young parahuman who had obviously triggered. Assuming that was a person in the cocoon, and not some kind of giant bug projection. 

“Hello?” He called out softly to the cocoon. 

The shuffling briefly stopped, then got frantic. Aegis still heard little panicked whines coming from inside the protective shell. 

“Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of this locker. I’m not too sure about this cocoon thing, but you’ll eventually get out of there too.” 

A muffled voice called out back to the Ward. “I think I can get out on my own. I didn’t before because I didn’t want to get in trouble for breaking a locker.” 

Armsmaster stood back from the cocoon, now safely outside the locker. Along with quite a bit of the waste, but such was the price of literally digging someone out of trouble. 

Aegis also stood back. “Alright, you’re outside the locker now. If you really can get out of there on your own, now’s your chance!” 

The cocoon started wobbling more fervently, and suddenly there was a huge rip down the side, and a wet tearing sound filled the air. 

Something started oozing from the chrysalis. 


	2. Forming 1.1: Taylor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taylor learns what she can do, part one.

Taylor spilled out of her chrysalis in a large, liquid-y blob. She knew that she was no longer human. She also knew that she could change. 

The goo that was currently the body of Taylor Hebert solidified. A human being slowly formed, the ooze settling into skin and hair. 

She was, unfortunately, naked. 

The adult male voice that had first found her muttered into a walkie-talkie. 

“This is Armsmaster to outside, we need a shock blanket here as quickly as possible.” The walkie-talkie crackled a response back at him. 

Taylor was still concentrating on maintaining a human form, but it was slowly dawning on her that she had just gotten rescued by Armsmaster and a Ward. And she was naked in front of them! 

The Ward, whose back was thankfully turned to Taylor, immediately volunteered to fetch the blanket. He power-walked away, and Taylor was sure that if she could see his face, he would be blushing furiously. 

Taylor was just glad that he wasn’t one of those immature teenage boys who stared at girls’ chests indiscriminately. Not that she had much there to stare at. 

Wait, Taylor had shapeshifting powers now! She could change that! Not that she would right now, this was the last situation she should be thinking about boobs in. 

Taylor shivered from the night chill, momentarily losing control of her human form. Instead of turning back into a blob, however, she sprouted thick, cat-like fur all over her body. 

“Well, that’s new.” Taylor commented dryly. 

Armsmaster still had his back turned to the newly-triggered parahuman, but he still asked, “ _What’s_ new?” 

Taylor figured that the fur covered most of her important bits, so she told Armsmaster that he could turn around. 

“Huh.” Armsmaster looked pretty shocked to see Taylor with fur. 

“Was that involuntary or can you control it?” He questioned. 

“Um... kinda both?” Taylor replied. “The fur was involuntary, I lost control for a moment there, but if I wanted to, I could get rid of it. Or change it, even.” 

Armsmaster looked fascinated. “Can you try to change colours?” He half-asked, half-demanded. 

Taylor obliged, and the mottled-grey fur all over her turned a delicate pink. She smiled at the change, it was nice to ‘wear’ a bright colour again. 

“Interesting.” Armsmaster commented. “That’s a very useful power. Is it just fur?” 

Taylor thought for a moment, feeling around with her power for any other changes she could make to her body. And wow, that was an awful lot of changes indeed. 

She could give herself wings, claws, horns, anything really! 

“I think I can turn any part of me into something else!” Taylor grinned gleefully. She had always wanted to change her appearance, and now she could! 

And to demonstrate, Taylor gave herself moth wings. Big, white, moth wings. 

“Where did you get the biomass from?” Armsmaster asked immediately. 

Taylor didn’t actually know. She told the older parahuman this. 

At that point, Aegis came back in with the shock blanket, and nearly dropped it in surprise. 

“You’re a changer?” He asked curiously. 

Taylor smiled. “Apparently!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted to make a character who could change their body into a hodge-podge of animal parts. Sort of like a chimera, or a less-egotistical Discord from MLP. But when it came to making a personality for that character, I fell flat as usual. 
> 
> So, I just took the power and stuck it onto Taylor instead. Concerning superpowers, my motto is: ‘When in doubt, Worm it out’!

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is one of my more... interesting... ideas. No idea how it will play out.


End file.
